


All For One

by misura



Category: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Genre: Multi, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 09:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3115715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The aftermath of another mission to the Wastelands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All For One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FireEye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/gifts).



Neil's the last to make it back to the ship - Captain's flying today, which means they're probably in for a bumpy ride. Wasteland missions are like that: get in fast, get out faster.

Get out too fast and get yelled at by some desk officer who's never been out here himself.

Get out too slow and get dead.

Not Neil's idea of a good time, really, especially since half the time, whatever neat stuff they bring back just seems to vanish into a storage facility somewhere, never to be seen again or put to use.

Makes a fellow wonder why they bother, really, it does. A visit to the Wastelands ain't no picnic, after all, and even when you're running with the best team of the city, that doesn't -

" _Neil!_ "

Neil doesn't turn around or slow down. He's ten steps away from the ramp, close enough to see the expression on Jane's face. Close enough, too, to see Ryan breaking out the big guns, or gun, if you want to be literal about it. So clearly, the smart thing to do is to just keep going and wait for someone to yell -

" _Duck!_ " That, yes.

Neil doesn't so much duck as dive: the sooner he gets his ass on board the ship, the sooner they can jet out of here, which sounds like a really good idea right now.

Jane pulls him inside; Ryan tells Gray over his comm they're complete and ready to go.

Another day's work gone right.

 

"Take off your pants," Jane says, which is -

"Uh, Jane. I like you and all, but I don't think now's the right time for that. And, I mean, sheesh - "

Ryan grins. Jane scowls. Neil wonders when he's started taking the two of them for granted, when saving each other's lives has become something as normal as breathing.

"I meant to check for injuries," Jane says. They don't have a scanner aboard the flyer. That fun bit's going to have to wait until they've gotten back to Barrier City #42. "I guess it's a good thing your brains are already scrambled."

"You sure that's all you want?" Neil asks. It's not so much that hope springs eternal; it's more that he _knows_ , and she knows he knows, and one of these days, she might even actually agree to have a mature conversation about it. "I mean, way to bruise a man's ego, you know?"

Ryan snorts. "Who'd want to look at your scrawny stuff when I'm around?"

Neil takes that for the rhetorical question it is. "You planned on putting your pants where your mouth is, Sarge, or are you just going to talk?"

Jane glances at the door to the bridge. Captain's possibly listening in on this, probably going to turn it off when it gets a little too ... none of his business.

"I suppose I might," Ryan says. "If the lady's up for it."

"Don't think we brought any of those along." Neil knows how far he can push this.

Doesn't mean he doesn't get scowled at, of course. "Maybe I should go and see if the Captain needs a hand plotting our route back."

"Aw, Jane, don't be like that. You want to be a lady, fine, you're a lady."

Jane sighs and shakes her head. "You're an idiot."

"What else is new?" Ryan asks. "You want smart, you've got me. You want not smart, you've got Neil. Best of both worlds."

Neil can hack his way into more computer systems than Ryan knows exist. Still, that doesn't mean Ryan's wrong here, exactly. It's just a different kind of smart.

"Fine." Jane reaches for her shirt. "But I _am_ going to check you for injuries first."

"Any excuse to put your hands on me, huh?"


End file.
